Eye of the Forest

Started Winter 2007, Completed Winter 2008

This quilt was requested by my husband to hang in our dining room. It was to be the first thing most people saw when they first stepped foot into our house.

I rarely take this long to make any quilt, but this was a particular beast. It didn't help that I was continually designing and redesigning this quilt. I just couldn't settle on what I wanted the finished piece to look like. In hindsight, I should have probably waited until I was completely happy with the design before purchasing and cutting the fabric.

The center portion of this quilt is pieced in a traditional log cabin with 1" finished strips making 6" blocks. The center "eye" is a fully pieced sawtooth star - the center star finishing at 1 1/2."

The tree branches on the sides were appliqued to the top after the center had been completely pieced. Using heat and bond stabilizer on just the edges of the appliques, I was able to attach them without causing the quilt to become stiff.

I used a buttonhole stitch to finish the edges of the tree branches and then quilted using mostly micro stippling.

I do plan to go back and add more quilting to this quilt eventually. I was in such a hurry to finish it that I left much of the borders unquilted.

The end result was that the quilt didn't hang as nicely as it could have. This was also created before I knew how to block a quilt, so maybe it would hang better if I blocked it after adding more quilting.

With some quilts, things go smoothly and turn out perfectly. With others you feel like you're pulling teeth the whole time. It's just a normal process and not every quilt you make will be your favorite!

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